Ideas to make your bathroom more environmentally friendly

Updated by June ,17, 2022

Go green — and save some — with these easy bathroom swaps. Sustainability xperts say A 10-minute shower with a standard shower head uses about 80 gallons of water and is responsible for producing about 4 lbs of water. Thus reducing a shower to five minutes can go a long way.

Use the bath tap and save water for plants

Depending on the velocity of your water heater, you may have to wait a few minutes for your shower to heat up. A simple trick can prevent you from wasting this cooler water. Instead of just running the shower until the water is hot, fill three one-quart plastic jugs that fruit juice came in with water from the hot water tap first and use to water plants.

3. Ditch single-use bottles for refillable containers

Think about the number of single use plastic bottles we use for shampoo, lotion, soap, etc. says Sustainability experts. It’s a little bit of an investment to purchase reusable containers; however, buying shampoo and other similar products in bulk saves you money over time and keeps plastic out of our landfills and oceans.

Use sustainable and zero-waste personal care products

Among Pinterest’s top-shopped sustainable products are zero-waste silk floss, an increasingly popular eco-friendly alternative to traditional dental floss, which is plastic-based. Silk floss doesn’t come in a plastic case and can be composted. Given that we should be flossing daily, and replacing our toothbrushes every few months, both of these small changes can drastically reduce the amount of plastic we pile on the environment, namely our oceans, which see more than 8 million metric tons of plastic annually.

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These toothbrushes are made with bamboo and are 100 percent biodegradable. They also come in recycled packaging.

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DIY hair products like shampoo

Homemade hair products such as shampoo made of cornstarch and a bit of cocoa powder plastic-free and toxin-free and can be stored in non-plastic containers such as a glass jar. This would eliminate plastic bottles entirely and are more concentrated and therefore last longer

Save on soap by making your own

Bar soap, like shampoo bars, don’t add plastic waste to the world, so you should always opt for these. They’re generally easier on your wallet, too.
A bar of soap is much eco-friendlier than liquid soap or body wash in a plastic container; it's much cheaper, too. Collect those little pieces of bar that are too small to use and put them in a jar with water overnight. You'll have homemade liquid soap in the morning, and you will have used every single part of the bar.
Chose a responsibly-sourced toilet paper

Consumers can help fight climate change by buying toilet paper that is more sustainable and made with more responsibly-sourced materials.